This invention relates to a transfer apparatus for transferring cylindrical tire constituting members from a pre-process drum to a post-process drum.
A transfer apparatus for tire constituting members hitherto used has been known as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 55-38,265. This apparatus includes an annular frame movable between a carcass band forming drum as a pre-process drum and a tire forming drum as a post-process drum. An arcuate tire constituting member carrying mechanism is mounted on the annular frame and outwardly surrounding a tire constituting member, for example, a carcass band to grasp it. Where the tire constituting member is transferred by such an apparatus, after outwardly grasping the tire constituting member with its axial center portion, the annular frame is moved from the carcass band forming drum toward the tire forming drum to transfer the tire constituting member to the tire forming drum.
With such a transfer apparatus, however, as the tire constituting member is simply grasped with the outside of its center portion by the tire constituting member carrying mechanism, axial ends of the soft tire constituting member tend to deform into taper shapes due to rubber contraction and gravity. As a result, when the tire constituting member is about to be fitted on the tire forming drum, the member and the drum interfere with each other to lower the operational efficiency.